OK, so here's where I fell in love with Battlestar Galactica. It was the first season episode, "You Can't Go Home Again," and Starbuck is stranded on some planet and she finds the Cylon Raider she just shot down. She discovers the ship is actually a living thing and, through much experimentation, eventually figures out a way to pilot it off the planet (and also write her name on it, which she probably secretly wanted to do with a number of previous ships, only to be denied by crusty old Adama).

Anyway, the sequences where she's trying to make the damn thing work for her are slimy, kind of disgusting and completely weird. And they rock. They caught my oft-wandering attention and kept my eyeballs glued to the screen for the rest of the episode. I kept thinking of how Picard would have spent 45 minutes trying to communicate with the ship using, like, Darmok language. But this is Galactica and the approach is decidedly un-Prime Directive-y. It is unique and gritty and occasionally outright bizarre.

So now we're set for the third season, which starts Oct. 6, and it's time to look back at a few key storylines and how I felt about them. Warning: most of the storylines I singled out here are rather Roslin-centric. For this I make no apologies, because I think Mary McDonnell is totally rockin' and gives incredible dimension to one of the most complex, fully-formed characters currently gracing the small screen and I've finally figured out how to feather my hair exactly like hers and soon my not-at-all-scary Roslin shrine will be complete. I LOVE YOU, MARY MCDONNELL.

Ahem. For details on even more Galactica plotlines -- because there are many -- check out that nifty "The Story So Far" clip special that SciFi put together. You can nab it for free on iTunes. Onward!

The Miniseries, a.k.a Expositionville USA: Here's how fellow Galactites recommend the show to would-be fans: "You will love it, but first...first..." (here, they sigh deeply, for their burden as Ambassadors of Kickass Genre Television is a heavy one) "...you have to get through the miniseries."

'Tis true: the mini is not nearly as good as the show, but it does provide a lot of necessary set-up. We watch as the Cylons -- cybernetic beings who were originally created to be humanity's slaves -- destroy the Twelve Colonies, sending the human survivors on the run. We witness the small fleet of human ships -- led by Galactica -- as they begin their quest for Earth.

We meet such key figures as noble, grizzled leader William Adama, newly-christened president Laura Roslin, bowl cut-sporting fighter pilot Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, brilliant scientist and possible Cylon collaborator Gaius Baltar, and alleged human Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, who is revealed to be a Cylon in the mini's final moments. I initially thought making Boomer a Cylon was kind of a silly, needlessly "dun-dun-DUN!" plot device, but it has since made for the sort of deliciously meaty storytelling that is Galactica's stock in trade. Such as...

Sharon and Lil' Cy: OK, so if you will recall, there are many copies of each Cylon model. So in season one, one of the Sharons is supposed to seduce Galactica pilot Helo and have a robohuman kidlet for the Cylons to study. Instead, Sharon and Helo fall in love and have their hybrid baby onboard Galactica.

And then, because allowing anyone on this show to be happy for more than 30 seconds would seriously endanger Galatica's Grit Factor, Lil' Cy is taken by Ol'Killjoy (Roslin), who arranges for her to be adopted by a human family. Roslin also convinces Sharon and Helo that the baby is dead. As baby-stealing plans go, this one is most certainly on par with Dr. Kimberly's rather brilliant scheming on Melrose Place. It's also one of my favorite Galactica plotlines because it skillfully combines believable human (and Cylon) angst with political skullduggery and gives us character moments from all sides (Helo, Sharon, Roslin).

Gaius Baltar and The Election of Crazy: Season two brought about a presidential election, and the best and worst thing about this particular storyline are one in the same. Simply put, who in their right mind would elect crazy, twitchy Baltar -- aka the guy who always seems to be talking to himself but is really talking to a ridiculously hot blonde Cylon who may or may not be a figment of his imagination -- president? And especially over Roslin, who is pretty much awesome personified?

Well. Basically, the tides turn when a habitable planet is discovered. Baltar wants to settle there, Roslin doesn't. And then Roslin tries to fix the election. And I loved this development, fully and completely, because it reinforced how Roslin doesn't always play by the rules, how far she's willing to go for humanity, and how she's evolved since first being named president. And hell, she was right to try, because guess what happens next?

The Time Warp: The last eppy of season two jumps a year into the future. Humanity, now settled on "New Caprica," has totally declined under Baltar's crappy rule. The Cylons are like, "awesome!" and swoop in to occupy the planet. I know some folks called cop-out on the time jump, but honestly, did we need to see a year's worth of episodes of Baltar being a bad president? We did not.

Anyway, after the Cylons show up, the fleet -- now featuring Adama with a rather impressive porn star mustache -- takes off, leaving the New Capricans behind to deal with Cylon rule. It's crazy. It opens up so many story possibilities. It left me staring, glaze-eyed, at my television, wondering what was next. I can't wait for season 3.